Raspberry Pi Models

The Raspberry Pi catalog in 2026 is broader than it's ever been: a fast-enough flagship, a keyboard-PC variant, a sub-$15 Linux board, and a pair of MCU dev boards that share the brand but live in a totally different world. Pick by workload and budget — the Pi 5 16GB is great, but a $200 mini-PC will eat its lunch on headless containers (see SBC vs. Mini-PC). For the Pi Pico microcontroller side, see MCU Platforms.

Flagship: Raspberry Pi 5

• ★ Pi 5 (8GB) — the default 2026 buy. Quad-core Cortex-A76 @ 2.4 GHz, PCIe 2.0 x1 (unofficially unlocked to PCIe 3.0 via dtparam=pciex1_gen=3), dual 4K HDMI, RTC, power button, real M.2 path via the official M.2 HAT+. Roughly 2-3x a Pi 4 across the board.
• ★ Pi 5 (16GB) — the late-2024 SKU that fixed the only honest gripe with the Pi 5. The right pick for Home Assistant + Frigate, light LLM serving with the AI HAT+, or a desktop Pi.
• Pi 5 (4GB) — fine for headless Klipper, Pi-hole, Home Assistant Core. Skip for desktop or Frigate with multiple ML cameras.
• ★ Compute Module 5 — same SoC as Pi 5; eMMC variants up to 64GB; PCIe x1 via the IO board; the path for Cluster Boards like Turing Pi 2 (with the RK1 module slot also accepting CM5-class boards) and DeskPi Super6c.

Pi 4 family

• ★ Pi 4B (4GB / 8GB) — still excellent in 2026 if you can buy one cheap. USB 3, gigabit Ethernet, dual micro-HDMI. Klipper, Pi-hole, Home Assistant, OctoPrint — all run great. Pi 5 is faster but Pi 4 is plenty for most "appliance" workloads and runs cooler/cheaper.
• Pi 4B (2GB) — fine for headless single-purpose appliances; Home Assistant OS minimum recommended.
• Compute Module 4 — the Pi 4 industrial variant; PCIe x1; still widely deployed in commercial products. CM5 has superseded it for new designs.

Keyboard / desktop variants

• ★ Pi 500 — Pi 5 in a keyboard. The kid-and-classroom Pi. Includes M.2 internal slot in the new Pi 500+ revision (2025) so you can boot from SSD inside the keyboard. Surprisingly nice secondary desktop.
• Pi 400 — Pi 4 in a keyboard. Discontinued path; buy the 500 instead.

Tiny / low-power: Pi Zero 2 W

• ★ Pi Zero 2 W — quad-core Cortex-A53 @ 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM, Wi-Fi + BT, all in a 65×30 mm board. The Pi for "embed it inside a thing." USB-C power, micro-HDMI, USB OTG (gadget mode → headless USB Ethernet). Roughly Pi 3 performance at Pi Zero size.
• Pi Zero W (original) — single-core, 512 MB, slow. Only buy if you have stock; the Zero 2 W obsoletes it.
• Pi Zero 2 WH — same as Zero 2 W with pre-soldered headers.

Pi 3 (legacy, still useful)

• Pi 3B+ — quad-core A53 @ 1.4 GHz, gigabit-over-USB, dual-band Wi-Fi. Fine for Pi-hole, single-zone Home Assistant, retro gaming. Skip for new buys; use what you already have.
• Pi 3B / 3A+ — older, slower. Hand-me-down territory.

Pi Pico (MCU, not Linux)

The Pico shares the brand but is a microcontroller — no Linux, no SD card, USB programming.

• ★ Pi Pico 2 / Pico 2 W — RP2350, dual Cortex-M33 or dual RISC-V Hazard3, 520 KB SRAM. The current pick.
• Pi Pico / Pico W — RP2040 original; still cheap and well-supported.
• See MCU Platforms → RP2040 / RP2350 for the full Pico story, GPIO Libraries for Pi-side GPIO (different from Pico).

Pricing reality check (US street, May 2026)

• Pi Zero 2 W: ~$15
• Pi 4 4GB: ~$55
• Pi 5 4GB: ~$60
• Pi 5 8GB: ~$80
• Pi 5 16GB: ~$120
• Pi 500: ~$90 (kit ~$120)
• CM5 8GB Wi-Fi: ~$95
• Pi Pico 2 W: ~$7

A Pi 5 16GB kit with case, cooler, PSU, NVMe SSD lands around $200-220 — the same money as a fanless Beelink with 16 GB RAM, 512 GB NVMe and an N100. Be honest about what you're optimizing for; see SBC vs. Mini-PC.

Pick this if…

• Default new Pi in 2026: Pi 5 8GB, or 16GB if running Frigate / multiple containers / desktop.
• Klipper / Pi-hole / Home Assistant on a budget: Pi 4 4GB or Pi 5 4GB.
• Embed inside a project, USB-gadget mode, low power: Pi Zero 2 W.
• Kid's first Linux machine / classroom desktop: Pi 500.
• Industrial / commercial product: Compute Module 5 + custom carrier.
• Cluster experimenter: CM5 + Turing Pi 2 — see Cluster Boards.
• MCU project, not Linux: Pi Pico 2 W — see MCU Platforms.
• Headless server only, no GPIO: seriously consider a mini-PC instead. See SBC vs. Mini-PC.